


Sleep Talk

by Madras_Eclipse



Category: Touhou Project
Genre: F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-03-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:00:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23289649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Madras_Eclipse/pseuds/Madras_Eclipse
Summary: Maribel pillow-talks with a sleeping Renko.
Relationships: Maribel Hearn/Usami Renko
Comments: 5
Kudos: 19





	Sleep Talk

She stood at the edge of the cliff, looking over the wilderness before her, the sea inlet, the pine trees, the mountains. A world without humanity, by her estimate 500,000 years in the future. Not a trace of humanity’s waste and ruins.

* * *

Maribel woke up.

She had been having dreams like this for quite some time, where she was catapulted countless thousands of years in the future, trying to figure out the reason why. She never got “normal” dreams, ones which acted as reflections and distillations of one’s cognition of the world and their subconcious mind’s attempts at haphazardly processing it. Of course, her cognition compared to most people’s was pretty warped, so she wasn’t sure she wanted to see what mishmashes her mind could put together.

She was thirsty, and had to go to the bathroom. Quietly, she rolled out of bed, careful not to disturb Renko sleeping beside her. Filling up a glass from the sink and doing her business, she was quick to return to bed; she knew how quickly drowsiness could recapture you during midnight runs such as this one. Tucking herself back in, she closed her eyes, letting the grip of sleep to retake her and whisk her away from this waking realm.

“...Merry.”

Maribel opened her eyes. Who said her name, she wondered.

“...hey, Merry.”

Oh, it was Renko. Had she woken her up by accident.

Maribel turned to face her. “Renko? What is it?”

“Can you help me out?” Her eyes were still closed, but she was clearly addressing her.

“Help you… with what?” Maribel wasn’t sure what was going on.

“The traps. You know, setting the traps, like you said?”

Traps? What traps? Maribel didn’t remember anything about traps. “I’m sorry, I don’t follow you?”

“The traps, to catch the Pop-Tarts,” Renko responded. “We gotta catch the Pop-Tarts or else the the Prime Minister’s gonna shoot the tires off my school bus.”

...ah. Maribel giggled. Seemed as though Renko was talking out her dreams. They covered this in some of her classes, how sometimes the body’s system for shutting down motor functions malfunctioned, causing them to talk, move around and walk in their sleep. There had even been cases of people getting up, driving a distance and murdering people in their sleep. Usually, disruptions like this happened due to things like mental illness or an irregular sleep schedule. Given Renko’s numerous all-nighters recently cramming for Physics exams, of course it would be affecting her ability to rest. Maribel realized she could ignore it… but it was just  _ so _ tempting to play along a while longer.

“Ah, I see,” Maribel affirmed. “Remind me, why did he want you to catch the Pop-Tarts again?”

“He wanted me to catch the Pop-Tarts so we can pay for all the pangolins to fly back to Mongolia,” Renko said. “And I gotta do it before he shoots the tires off my school bus.”

“Why would he threaten that?” Maribel asked curiously.

“‘Cuz if the bus doesn’t have tires, he can use it to fly the pangolins back, but it doesn’t have enough hydrogen in it.” Hydrogen fuel cells, presumably, but given the context she could be suggesting filling the bus with hydrogen to make it fly.

“Well, we should probably get to it,” Maribel said.

“Screw it,” Renko said flatly.

“...why?” Maribel asked her.

“I wanna go searching for Ley Lines,” Renko told her. “I’m told there’s a bunch up in Shinjuku next to the panda shop.”

“I… I see,” Maribel replied. “But what about the Pop-Tarts?”

“I ate them with ketchup,” Renko insisted.

“...oh, oh, I see,” said Maribel.

“So, yeah, Ley Lines, Sealing Club stuff,” Renko continued. “When we get there, though, we gotta open them with forks.”

Maribel tilted her head down. “Why… do we have to open them… with forks?”

“‘Cause if we open them with spoons, a buncha beans are gonna fall out and the world’s gonna be covered in beans,” Renko said. “That’s why we gotta do it with forks.”

“Well… alright, let’s head to Shinjuku!” Maribel chirped.

“We’re already there,” Renko said.

“Oh, we are?” Maribel asked.

“Yeah. And I got the forks here.” Renko’s hands slid out from under the covers and opened outward while clenched. “And… there. Yeah. Did I mention I’m God now?”

“You… you did not,” Maribel said.

“Yeah, I’m God. Look behind you.”

Maribel turned around to face the window. “I don’t see anything.”

“I’m gonna make King Ghidorah appear right now… there.” Renko paused. “Ahahaha… it even roared. Did you hear it, Merry?”

Maribel tried to imagine King Ghidorah’s voice in her head. “Yeah, I did.”

“Scary, huh?” Now Renko was smiling lightly. “Maybe I should change it to Ed.”

“...who’s Ed?” Maribel asked her.

“You know, Ed, from that old American show Ed, Edd ‘n Eddy?” Renko was silent again. “There. You hear him now?”

It took a moment for Maribel to realize what Renko was talking about, before she did a voice impression. “I don’t know if I hear him or not. According to my calculations…”

“That ain’t what I’m talking about, Double-D,” Renko complained. Maribel chuckled, expecting her to say “jawbreakers” or something.

Instead, Renko opened her eyes. Was she up now, Maribel wondered?

“Hey, Merry,” Renko asked. “I have a question.”

“Mmm? What is it?”

Renko took a second, then asked candidly, “am I going to die?”

Maribel thought carefully how to answer this one. Technically, she thought, everyone was going to die, because no one lives forever. But Renko was likely asking if she was going to die soon. She could give an honest answer, but what if Renko’s subconscious mind was trying to warn her of something, or if Renko had something scaring her in her waking life? And, of course, was she awake now? Maribel had no way of knowing, so wanting to play with her some more, she thought of the perfect answer.

“You are already dead,” she smiled.

“What? You must be joking,” Renko said, a little playfully, as she rolled back over and visibly twitched. Yeah, still asleep, Maribel thought.

Maribel watched Renko for a few moments, seeing if she would do anything else.

Then, all of a sudden, Renko sat right up, eyes starry and with a big, fat toothy grin, and started dancing and singing.

_ “You’ll never see it comiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing, you’ll SEE that my mind is, too fast for eyees, you’re done iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin, by the TIME it’s hit you, your Last Surpriiiise! ~oooooooOOOOOOoooooh~, ~oooooooOOOOOOoooooh~, ~oooooooOOOOOOoooooh~, ~oooooooOOOOOOoooooh~...” _

Silence for a moment, before dropping back down into the bed like nothing happened. Maribel leaned in close, and heard Renko snoozing lightly.

Maribel giggled to herself. The subconscious mind sure was an interesting place, she thought.

“You’re so cute, Renko,” she smiled. She kissed Renko’s forehead lightly, before laying down and letting sleep overtake her, awaiting the world she would next be sent to.

**Author's Note:**

> Another bored one-shot born of Mr. Inslee shutting down the state, this time my first attempt at fluff. I've always felt Renko and Merry to be difficult for me to approach due to the mind-numbing amount of theoretical physics and psychology involved, as well as being so distinct from Touhou at large, but I felt I could at least manage this. Again, hope you enjoyed.


End file.
